Along with gaining powerful performance capabilities, insanely fast charging speeds, and robust builds, OnePlus smartphones have always inherited smooth and skilful software in the form of OxygenOS. On the other hand, Realme UI has featured across hundreds of Realme smartphones at different price points, providing users tons of features for daily productivity. Now, A report from Smartprix claims that OxygenOS and Realme UI could soon be a thing of the past, as OPPO is expected to mandate ColorOS on both OnePlus and Realme devices going forward.
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Future OnePlus and Realme smartphones may run ColorOS
According to Smartprix’s report, a ‘highly reliable and seasoned industry insider’ has said that OxygenOS and Realme UI will be axed in the near future, and all the new releases from OnePlus and Realme will feature OPPO’s ColorOS. Under the hood, both skins run on ColorOS’ codebase, with the difference being Realme UI has been based on ColorOS since the start, i.e. 2018, while OxygenOS merged its underlying software with ColorOS back in 2022.
The report states that this comes as part of OPPO’s efforts to consolidate OnePlus and Realme’s operations under OPPO at the global level, which could mean developing and managing just a single software skin across the three brands as part of the broader plan. The plan may have already been set in stone, as recently OnePlus merged its after-sales and service network with OPPO in India, allowing OnePlus users to walk into any of OPPO’s service centres to get their damaged or faulty devices fixed. On the other hand, OnePlus Community in China now features a dedicated space for Realme device owners to interact and engage with OnePlus users.
Merging OxygenOS, Realme UI and ColorOS could help OPPO cut down on R&D costs
With the smartphone and the entire tech industry in general facing a memory and storage shortage crisis, merging operations under one roof could help OPPO save costs. As a result, instead of catering to three different skins with familiar look and feel, OPPO aims to fuse OxygenOS and Realme UI into ColorOS for all devices released in the future.
While this would go a long way in strengthening the quality of the software by deploying faster rollouts, quickly taking measures to fix bugs, and allocating more resources for developing new features, the core identity of OnePlus phones globally would be stripped away. Since the start, OnePlus has banked on OxygenOS by delivering well-polished software that is smooth to operate, while carrying all the essential features. This holds for both the original OxygenOS and the current OxygenOS that runs the ColorOS codebase.
In its current state, OxygenOS does indeed carry several distinct features from ColorOS, such as the rounded toggles and sliders in the quick settings panel, an OxygenOS-themed About Phone and Update page, homescreen icons, and most importantly, the red-accented clock. So for those considering a new OnePlus device, this potential shift might influence your decision based on your preference for OxygenOS’s unique identity.
It remains to be seen whether OnePlus phones running ColorOS after the consolidation will continue to feature the mentioned elements. On the other hand, Realme UI 7 is nearly identical to ColorOS 16, with the main exception being the homescreen icons. Therefore, Realme users might see less impact due to existing similarities with ColorOS.
